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John Lovette had spectacular senior season.
Already a solid performer in football and in track, the late John Lovette had a season to remember as wrestler at Centralia High School in 1979.
A senior, wrestling at 185 pounds, he put together one of the finest campaigns ever recorded by a CHS grappler in posting a 32-3 record that included a victory at the Illinois High School Association Class AA state tournament.
Lovett was also a key member of a team that posted a 16-1-1 record during the regular season and will enter the Centralia Sports Hall of Fame as will teammate Bill Kingsley who also went to state that year.
“They were both outstanding wrestlers and each had some of the best records and times in that period,” Centralia coach Dick Carpenter said of Kingsley and Lovette. “They did a lot for the program and are well deserving to be in the Hall of Fame.”
In his junior season, he went 19-8-1, won first in district action at 167 pounds and placed third at the South Seven Conference Tourney and took fourth at the Murdale and Mattoon Tournaments while earning Southern Illinois Coaches Association honors as the Orphans went 14-5 as a team.
His senior year included first-place finishes at the Mascoutah and Murdale Invitationals, the South Seven Conference and in the postseason, in the district meet held at Belleville West and the sectional at Granite City, of which the latter qualified him for a trip to state.
“The state tournament was set up differently than it is today, but they both [Kingsley and Lovette] were ranked high in their classes,” said Carpenter.
As a team, the 1979 Orphans only loss in a dual or triangular match was to Mascoutah in the second bout of the season. Other than that, Centralia had regular-season wins over O’Fallon, Civic Memorial, Alton, Edwardsville, Mt. Vernon, Marion, Herrin, Harrisburg, Carbondale, Collinsville, Triad, East Alton-Wood River, East St. Louis and Hillsboro with a tie against Belleville East. The team’s South Seven Conference championship — which came by a 138-117 margin over Carbondale — was its fifth in six years.
The Orphans also took first at the Murdale Tournament with Lovette playing a key role. With Centralia holding a narrow 130-126 lead over Sikeston (Mo.), his pin at 185 gave the Orphans the necessary points to clinch first place. It was Lovett’s fourth victory of the tourney.
At the conference tournament, Lovett defeated Ernie Badger of Mt. Vernon — who would also make it to state that season — in the title match.
Moving on to the district, which was hosted by Belleville West who was undefeated in dual matches on the year, Lovette’s championship win with a second-period pin of a West wrestler helped the Orphans to an overall third place finish as he and Kingsley became the first Centralia state qualifiers since Rocky Currie and Ken Smudrick had done so nine years earlier.
After receiving a first-round bye at state, Lovett was paired against James Stackhouse of Chicago Marshall and won by a 10-6 decision. He was decisioned by eventual champion Gregg Close of Addison Trail and then fell in the wrestleback round to end the year with a record of 32-3.
Continuing his athletic career at CHS as a thrower in both the shot and discus, he placed fifth at the South Seven Conference meet as a senior.
In the previous fall, Lovette was the starting center for the Orphans’ football team and as a junior, also handled those duties for the 1977 club that won the South Seven Conference and qualified for the playoffs with a 7-3 record.
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